television – Page 5 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

31 Mystic Popup Bar and Binging TV from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Host: We’ve got a question here. Where can we view “Mystic pop-up bar”. I think it’s on Netflix.

Rosanne: Netflix. It’s on Netflix. Please find it. You will find it beautiful and you might have to watch a couple just to get to understand. It’s not hard to understand – obviously, it’s subtitled – but I mean story-wise it seems light, which is fun, and then it gets more and more – and not dark or sad – but more and more heartfelt without being schmaltzy. If that makes sense. It just yeah it’s 12 episodes I think and just I couldn’t – in the last four I had to do a whole binge thing. I had to know then how they were all connected and I just – my heart just was like this is so beautiful and then it was over. It’s a limited series. I was like no I want more.

Host: I’ve been – these limited series do stress me out because you can you smash through them in one – one Sunday if you’ve got the day. If you’ve got a day, you’re having a day of rest you know you can sit there and watch four or five four or five episodes. I did that with the first “True Detective”. I think I did that with the Queen’s Gambit and just ran through these things and now I’m kind of like, I think I’ve seen all the Oscar and all the Oscar nominees. So I’m now waiting for you wonderful writers to get some more stuff out there.

One of the benefits of attending conferences is that you can meet the editors from the companies that have published some of your books face to face. That happened at the recent SCMS conference where I met Intellect editor James Campbell and he invited me to be a guest on his InstagramLive show.

We chatted about my work with the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting, and then my work with co-editor Rose Ferrell on the Journal of Screenwriting’s special issue on Women in Screenwriting (Volume 11, Number 3) that came out recently and which featured articles about an international set of female screenwriters from Syria, Argentina, China and Canada (to name a few).

We even had time to nerd out on our own favorite classic films across the eras which brought up fun memories of Angels with Dirty Faces, Back to the Future, Bonnie and Clyde, and of course, all things Star Wars from the original 3 to The Mandalorian. It’s always so fun to talk to fellow cinephiles.

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With Intellect Books Editor James Campbell (@IntellectBooks)

Speaking with Dr. Rosanne Welch, Author, teacher, and television screenwriter. Today we cover everything from women in screenwriting to our favorite Jimmy Cagney movies and Friends.

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14 More On Writer Vs. Director from What Is a Western? Interview Series: When Women Wrote Westerns from the Autry Museum of the American West [Video]

Transcript:

There is a classic Robert Riskin story. He’s the guy who wrote all the Frank Capra movies and it’s and anecdotal – the idea that one day he got so mad about the “Capra Touch.” They handed in 200 blank pages and he said ‘Go ahead. Put your touch on that.” Because you can’t direct nothing, right? So there’s a lot of reasons why in the Forties-ish we start getting these celebrity directors and the problem with teaching directors as the heads of their movies is that, largely, they were men. So we’re teaching the great, male history of the world again when many of those stories were written by women.

The Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting is building a relationship with the Autry Museum of the American West since both organizations are devoted to bringing out more diverse and untold stories. Last year we were able to take our cohort of graduating MFA candidates to the museum’s theatre for a showing of Michael Wilson’s Salt of the Earth and we had plans to present a film of our choice this year – but of course the pandemic changed all that. Instead, Autry Curator Josh Garrett-Davis asked me if I would sit for an interview about female screenwriters in the western genre and so “When Women Wrote Westerns” came to be a part of their “What Is a Western? Interview Series”.

I had a great time discussing so many wonderful women writers – from Jeanne MacPherson to D.C. Fontana to Edna Ferber to Emily Andras. If you love westerns I suggest you watch Josh’s other interviews covering everything from the work of Native Americans in Western movies to films in the western-horror hybrid. —

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As part of a series exploring the significance of the Western genre and the ways in which the movies shape our understanding of the American West, Autry Curator Josh Garrett-Davis interviews Professor Rosanne Welch about the women screenwriters of Hollywood and their contributions to the Western genre.

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30 More On International Opportunities from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Rosanne: … because now we also understand other parts of the world that the United States TV market was kind of shut to because we only showed our own stuff and some of the “best” stuff from the UK on our PBS channels, right, and now we’re seeing so much more of the world. Which is also just helpful – going back to what we said about art making us all more human.

Host: Definitely. Yeah. An understanding of humanity when we can hear people’s perspectives and hear them tell their own stories.

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With Intellect Books Editor James Campbell (@IntellectBooks)

Speaking with Dr. Rosanne Welch, Author, teacher, and television screenwriter. Today we cover everything from women in screenwriting to our favorite Jimmy Cagney movies and Friends.

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24 Conclusion from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today.

I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.

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Transcript:

…because my argument with my friend that started all of this was that at the end of “Children of Earth” when Jack has to sacrifice his grandson, for all the good work that Russell has done with female characters my argument was, why wasn’t that his son? Because by making it his grandson – if you remember – the mother was outside the room banging on the door. So he usurped his daughter’s power as the parent of her own child and killed him as opposed to – if it was his son – I mean you shouldn’t kill your kid – you know what I am saying – that was like this one degree of separation and that made her character useless and unempowered and I don’t know why that occurred to him at all. So that was my argument and that’s actually what my article is about – why that didn’t work dramatically for me in that it dealt with that female character but it started the whole thing and caused me to be very interested in Torchwood.

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29 International Opportunities from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

So I actually have a student right now whose family is – her father worked 6 months of the year in the States and 6 months in Korea and Korean television is exploding. Look at Netflix and all the new interesting shows that they have. She – normally a student would have to write a spec script of a show that exists here in the States. I make an exception for “Doctor Who” because everyone should know “Doctor Who”. So, if you want to be a States person and write that, you can, but this is the first time. She wanted to write a Korean show because she wants to move back to Korea full-time when she graduates and work in that television industry and that fascinated me. She got me to watch a highly recommend, beautiful show on Netflix called “Mystic Popup Bar.” It’s a beautiful story about a woman from ancient days in Korea who’s committed some sort of crime we don’t know, but she is cursed with having to be an – after she’s dead – and in the afterlife, she has to save 100,000 humans from grudges they have and then she can move essentially to heaven as opposed of go to hell for whatever this crime is that you take a while to find out what it was and so what you’re seeing is her encounter humans that need her help and she helps them in order to call up more – and she does it through running this pop-up bar where they come in and have dinner and she hears their troubles and then she goes into their life, but it has this beautiful final four episodes where you get the real ancient story and you start making connections between the other characters in it. It’s just beautifully written. It’s a beautiful, beautiful show. So that is more opportunity for people.

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With Intellect Books Editor James Campbell (@IntellectBooks)

Speaking with Dr. Rosanne Welch, Author, teacher, and television screenwriter. Today we cover everything from women in screenwriting to our favorite Jimmy Cagney movies and Friends.

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23 The Writer’s Tale from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.

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Transcript:

…and I did want to make a quick bit about this yesterday. I mentioned this book to some folks it’s “The Writer’s Tale” where Russell talks not just about the last series with David Tennant but also he talks about writing “Children of Earth” and how the questions and the ideas were coming to him and what he worried about and then the actual watching the pilot and the different you know going to the edits. He really discusses the job of being Executive Producer and how much work it was. He was doing both of those things at the same time which is crazy but that’s how people do it when they do it in town. So to me, these are the many reasons why Torchwood is still worth talking about and I do wish they had kept to the alien of the week and done that for maybe five seasons before we went off into “Children of Earth” and then I would have done. I would have ended right?

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13 Writer Precedes Director from What Is a Western? Interview Series: When Women Wrote Westerns from the Autry Museum of the American West [Video]

Transcript:

Host: Usually the directors become the heroes of film history. What’s different between the history of screenwriters and the history of directors or actors or actresses in what gets remembered?

Rosanne: Of course. We always grant you that people go first to see an actor or an actress. They fall for that person. That’s who they are going to see the movie for. That’s just the truth. The whole writer-director thing makes me crazy. Back in the day, they recognized writers more. Writers were in “Photoplay” magazine when they had marriages or they were taking vacations. We read about people like Lorna Moon and Anita Loos, obviously. All these people and then what happens is the “Auteur Theory” shows up and the “Auteur Theory” blows us away because François Truffaut over there in France decides directors are the real author of a movie. Even though they don’t write anything unless they’re writer/directors and I always tell my students the word Writer still comes before Director in that phrase.a

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Find more information at the Autry Museum of the American West

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28 Changes from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Host: Is the business getting harder or are there more opportunities for younger writers and emerging writers?

Rosanne: I think there are more opportunities because the more shows – we have something like 439 new, actual shows, narrative shows running at this one time because of all the streamers and stuff. So that means all those shows need assistants and assistants – it’s kind of like the apprenticeship job on your way up. So, there is much more of that opportunity to meet and work with writers. Of course, that means that all that many more sets. One of the issues for someone in LA is that the sets are all over the place. So you’re not going to meet people if you’re a PA. You’re working on a show in Texas or like that, you’re not going to meet the writers because the writers are still pretty much here in LA or New York. So there is an issue with that. What I do enjoy is that the world is also getting more global because Netflix wants a global audience.

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With Intellect Books Editor James Campbell (@IntellectBooks)

Speaking with Dr. Rosanne Welch, Author, teacher, and television screenwriter. Today we cover everything from women in screenwriting to our favorite Jimmy Cagney movies and Friends.

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31 Conclusion from The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years [Video] [Doctor Who]

It was great to be able to attend this year’s SD WhoCon in San Diego and present this lecture on “The Difficulties and Delicacies of Writing the First Female Doctor in 50+ years” in which I discuss how successful I think showrunner Christopher Chibnall was in making that transition.

It gave me a chance to talk about the creative work of a showrunner/screenwriter while also reconnecting to some friends we had met at this same convention some 3 years ago – and to talk about one of my favorite subjects – Doctor Who!

I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.

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Transcript:

Writing of your own work and the rewriting of other people is a very important part of your job and I think this quote sticks with me from “Rosa” and I don’t know if Mallory Blackman wrote it or if Chibnall wrote it but “Tiny things can change the world” which is that lovely moment at the end of Rosa. So it’s not just a story about history in the United States because now there is this meteor named after her right? So the idea of the bigness of all of this right and they were all part of the same planet which really goes back to “Star Trek” again and we should all come together. I think that’s so truly a part of Doctor Who that he caught he captured in that line. I just love that moment. I think it’s so beautiful and I think amazing the way that stories we see on television affect our lives and help us make choices and ideas and think about who we are. So that to me is the biggest job that he did. Again he had to cast this room full of these people and I think he did a good job of all of those. So I really think he did a good job. I know we’re not all completely always happy with him but I think he made a promise and he came through on it and to me that’s pretty successful. When you’re handed a franchise that’s 50 years old and what new thing are you going to come up and do with it. So that’s my story on Chris Chibnall. Thank you all for coming.

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22 Sandman from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

Transcript:

So, now that we have that happening, gee whiz, Neil Gaiman is doing “Sandman” in London and he’s brought over Alan Heinberg who’s an American writer who’s been in Shondaland for many years. He’s done several of her shows and then was the writer hired to write the first “Wonder Woman” movie. So, he’s an American guy through and through but Neil Gaiman was like “That’s the guy I need on my show.” So now, Allan has moved to London for the last nine months working with Neil, and what a – just as it was an honor for Jane to want Russell to work with her, Allan felt that way about Neil Gaiman choosing him. So, we’re going to have the two sensibilities in this one piece and this stuff didn’t happen in the past either, right? This is a new idea that we can do that. Partially that’s also built up with Netflix and the idea that we’re now watching more international television. It’s not just American shows going everywhere and Americans now have this access to newer things. So I just think that’s pretty amazing. All of this to me comes from Torchwood.

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